Jared Bernstein, a fellow at the Center on Budget and Priority Studies and the former economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, wrote an opinion column in the Washington Post discussing a new tax imposed by the city of Seattle. Businesses with revenues greater than $20 million per year were required to pay a “head tax” of $275 per employee. Bernstein commented that in evaluating the effect of the tax, “the question then, as with all taxes, comes down to incidence.”

a. What does Bernstein mean by “incidence”? 

b. Briefly explain why Bernstein would consider the incidence of this tax to be important in evaluating the effect of the tax.